Bucks Foot-care Center Uses Carbon Dioxide Laser

A new foot-care center in Upper Bucks is using a carbon dioxide laser to evaporate cells that cause troublesome ingrown toenails, warts, fungus nails and nerve tumors.

Use of the laser is generally a less painful, faster and more permanent process, according to Dr. James R. Smith, who has opened a branch office for Bux-Mont Foot Care Center in the Chi-Shoemaker Building, 256 Trumbauersville Road, Quakertown.

Smith says the center's interest in laser treatment began when Dr. Jack B. Gorman, senior podiatrist at Bux-Mont Foot Care's main office at 399 York Road, Warminster Township, was traveling in Israel five years ago and visited the Sharpland Laser Co.

"From what he learned there and from what he read, he became convinced that the laser could be used in the field of podiatry."

Now the center is a training ground for podiatrists seeking instruction in laser use.

Smith said 60 to 70 podiatrists have received instruction at the center. He has done some of the training himself.

Smith described how lasers are used in podiatry.

"The cells we are dealing with in the foot are made up of 75 to 95 percent water. The C0-2 laser is attracted to water. When turned on to a damaged cell it imparts its energy into the water in the cell and instantaneously changes the water to steam by boiling it. That bursts the cell and creates the evaporation we talk about."

If the patient has an ingrown toenail, the curve-in outer sides are clipped back to eliminate immediate pain. In the same treatment the laser is applied to a cuticle at the back of the nail to evaporate and permanently remove the cells that are creating the ingrown nail.

The laser evaporation method is used with tumors that attach themselves to the nerves that travel through the foot.

Warts can be removed using the pinpoint-by-pinpoint work of the laser, Smith added.

First used in ophthalmology and gynecology, Smith says, the laser is becoming one of the most important tools in medicine.

As to the laser's future in medicine, Smith said, " Dr. Gorman just returned from Israel yesterday, where he spent two weeks. He learned they are now using the laser to seal surgical incisions without sutures. They are also cutting bone with it."

Lasers are expensive pieces of equipment. Smith's portable unit cost $25,000. He uses it Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the Quakertown office and takes it to the center's Bensalem Township office for use on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays each week.

Smith, 32, is a graduate of Pennsylvania College of Podiatric Medicine, Philadelphia. He received a bachelor of science degree from Temple University and is a native and resident of Hatboro, in eastern Montgomery County.

He says, "I persuaded the center to open the Quakertown office for two reasons: because of the number of patients we had coming to the Warminster office from Upper Bucks County and because I want to move up here."